From Bird Cage to Battle Plane: The History of the RAF

New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1943. First Ediiton . Hard Back. Good/No Dust Jacket. 5 3/4" x 8. Hornby, George - Design. 248 Pages with a Six Page Comprehensive Index. Blue boards with gold spine lettering. Pages 203-204, where a review by Charles Wagner of the Mirror was laid-in causing some age tanning. Beyond that are flawless text pages. Cover has some shelfwear. The review remains laid-in and has a photograph of a New Sopwith fighter (SE-5) which the RAF used in World War 1 and at the bottom a photo of a New Boulton Paul Defiant with the caption saying the flying speed was over 500 mph and diving speed over 600. It carried 14 machine guns in wings alone according to the article. Quote from the 1943 clipping - 'As Ralph Michaelis of the RAF tells it in the excellent history of the rise of British air power From Bird Cage to Battle Plane (Crowell, $2.50), this week's Book-of-the-Mirror, you really see the growing of the British plane mosaic in all its detailed, witty, caustic, blood and sweat, tragedy and tears segments: a puzzle of parts that hangs together for the showdown like a sky full of planes doing an Immelman across the horizon of history.' Contents in Six Chapter: The Birds and Their Cages, The Fighter Command, Bomber Command, Coastal Command, The Middle East, and The Eagle Squadrons. Illustrated with black and white photographs throughout.